Ireland will grind to a halt for Mick's men

Irish icons James Joyce and Padre Pio will be overshadowed tomorrow by Barnsley boy Mick McCarthy.

For while Joyce will be commemorated in Dublin through the annual Bloomsday - marking events in his celebrated novel Ulysses - and Padre Pio, one of the Roman Catholic church’s most revered figures in Ireland, is being canonised by the Pope in Rome, most Irish eyes will be firmly focused on the performance of national football manager McCarthy’s World Cup squad in South Korea.